Pedagogy, access and artistic development in extra-curricular jazz practice

Sykes, Tom Pedagogy, access and artistic development in extra-curricular jazz practice. In: Places and Spaces: International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz, 25 Feb 2026 - 27 Mar 2026, Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel (Belgium).

Microsoft PowerPoint (OpenXML) INARJ 2026 presentation TS.pptx Download (19MB)

Abstract

In the city where I work, Liverpool, there is a thriving grass-roots jazz scene involving a significant number of young musicians, even though there is no music conservatory or university offering a specialist jazz degree. At the city’s universities there are students following a range of undergraduate courses in popular and classical music, including my own institution, Liverpool Hope University, where our courses are not genre-specific but non-credit bearing jazz pedagogy is offered via the extra-curricular university big band. As many local schools do not offer opportunities to learn about or play jazz, in recent years I have secured funding to run projects in which groups of secondary school students have been invited to participate in jazz and improvisation workshops and performances involving the big band. These have been targeted at young musicians who would probably not have an opportunity to take part in such activities due to financial or other barriers. In this presentation I will consider the effectiveness of such activities as examples of communities of musical practice (Kenny 2016) in which both undergraduate and secondary school students develop their musical creativity and self-confidence via extra-curricular jazz practice in a safe performance space. Recent examples will be discussed, as well as the question of whether the youthful jazz scene in Liverpool is flourishing despite or because of a lack of formal jazz education in the city.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Creative and Performing Arts
SWORD Depositor:	RISE Symplectic
Depositing User:	RISE Symplectic
Date Deposited:	16 Mar 2026 14:09
Last Modified:	16 Mar 2026 14:09
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4872

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